As a truly surface analytical tool, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was developed in recent ten years, and in this paper, fundamental theory, instrumentation and it’s applications in material science are reviewed in detail. Application progress of elemental distribution and depth profile analysis are mainly discussed in the field of metallurgy, semiconductor and electronical materials at home and abroad. It is pointed out that the pulse energy, ambient gas and it’s pressure, and energy distribution of laser beam strongly influence spatial and depth resolution, and meanwhile a approach to improving resolution considering analytical sensitivity is provided. Compared with traditional surface analytical methods, the advantage of LIBS is very large scanning area, high analytical speed, and that conducting materials or non-conducting materials both can be analyzed. It becomes a powerful complement of traditional surface analytical tool.